“Really?” asked Mary. Her face brightened as they touched the kid's age. He grew from a child to a boy and from a boy to a man.
“This is, of course, provided that he gets adequate nutrition and exercise. His weight could vary, but this is set up for an average look at him during these ages.”
“I think this is great. But perhaps we could go more similar to the actor Tom Cruise?”
Jennifer selected the appearance option again and changed the appearance. After about half an hour of customization, Mary was delighted with the kid's appearance.
“Alright, so let's customize his behavior and his attitude. I'm sure you don't want him to be angry or mean, so let's cross those out!”
“My son should become a tennis player. He should like painting as a hobby as well.”
“Both great choices,” replied Jennifer. “Is there any special characteristic that you want him to inherit from your husband?”
She looked at her husband and thought for a while before she said, “No.”
After they completed the behavior and attitude section, Jennifer once again confirmed the kid's settings and then they started to discuss price. After that, she told them about the warranty and gave them the terms and conditions agreement. The terms and condition agreement was over one-hundred pages. Stephen was surprised by the length.
“Don't worry, Stephen,” said Jennifer. “This is customary procedure for all kid design clinical labs. It is a favor to you really. It even includes 24 months warranty.”
Stephen browsed the document quickly and asked, “What does warranty mean for a kid?”
“Nowadays it's a common thing for test tube babies in medical procedures. Basically the warranty means that in case of a miscarriage or if there is some kind of accident with our process that we will help you to conceive again without an additional fee. Most only cover until the birth, but our warranty is extended as it covers after the birth until the age of two.”
“Well what-”
“When do we start the process?” asked Mary.
“It takes about a week to process the paper work. After that we will implant the child into your body. It's perfectly safe. Afterwards, we will regularly monitor your health and tell you about the growth of the baby.”
“That sounds great. Can I get a print out of what my baby will look like and his features?”
“Why not? But not a print out. We have something better.” Jennifer touched the print button on the glass display and informed them that it'd be just a few minutes. After they had returned to the waiting room and fifteen minutes had passed, the receptionist brought out the doll which looked exactly like her baby would. Mary took it and hugged it with a big grin. Her eyes shone with excitement and forgot her surroundings, pretending that she was holding her actual baby.
AFTER NINE MONTHS
Stephen waited outside the delivery room. He couldn't bear to see his wife in pain and she understood. As he stood there, praying his words were interrupted by a baby's cry. He smiled and thought about his wife. The doctor came out and said to him, “both are going to be fine.”
When Stephen saw the child it looked exactly like the 3D printed baby toy.
Soon they knew the meaning of parenting. Days ran faster. Today was the baby's first birthday. The kid didn't even care about his birthday. He simply lay on the bed playing with an iPad, drawing something.
“He's not playing the tennis game on the iPad, all he does is draw,” said Mary.
Stephen laughed and thought to himself that the child was only one year old. She was too worried about the tennis game. The doorbell rang and broke him out of his thoughts.
A man and lady smiled and showed their ID cards to Stephen. They introduced themselves as being from Futurz Kids clinic. Stephen recognized the woman as he had met her previously.
“Welcome,” said Stephen. “We expect Jennifer will be here also. But the birthday party doesn't start until later tonight. You've shown up a bit early.”
“This morning,” began the lady, “Jennifer noticed the birthday invitation and wanted to give the best gift she could so she checked on your baby's statistics. The problem though is that she found an issue and she asked us to come here to you.”
“What issue? What's wrong with my child?” asked Mary.
“She didn't say exactly, but she did say that it was urgent and she wanted us here with you when you spoke to her,” said the man.
Stephen dialed Jennifer's cell phone. She asked them to go with the man and the woman from the clinic back to the clinic and she'd explain there. The baby began to cry and the lady from the clinic began to soothe him.
When they were at the clinic, Jennifer greeted them and brought them into her office.
“I'm sorry. Just today we found that the baby was not designed per your requirement.”
“The appearance is exactly the same. How can that be?” asked Mary
“Is there a health issue?” asked Stephen. “Why is this urgent?”
“No. There's no health issues. It's a behavior and attitude issue only,” replied Jennifer. “It's not what you wanted.”
“Yes, perhaps I can see that. He only draws. He isn't playing the tennis game I got for him on the iPad. Is it possible to change this behavior?”
“It's not possible. The behavior is hard coded into his DNA.”
“We've paid you too much! You weren't careful. I want to change my baby's behavior. He needs to play tennis!”
Stephen calmed his wife down and turned to Jennifer.
“We're alright with how our kid turned out. The appearance is the same expected and that's more than we can ask for. We're going to go now. We don't need your service any longer.”
He walked over to the lady he had left their baby with for the meeting but their baby was nowhere to be found.
“Where is our baby? We have to go”
“Sorry Stephen,” replied Jennifer. “We can't give the baby back to you. Per our terms and conditions if anything is wrong in the baby's specification we have to help you again to get the right specifications. It's not optional.”
“What the hell are you talking about? This isn't a mobile phone or an electronic gadget that you can just replace with a warranty. We need our baby. We love him. We've lived with him and can't live without him. We don't care about the behavior specification. Either gives us our child or we will call the police and have you crooks arrested.”
“Please calm down, sir,” replied Jennifer. “Let me explain first. The terms and conditions are binding. The police and the law could not help you in this. As per our terms, we have to give you a baby per your specifications. I already informed you that any issue in the first twenty four months was covered as per our warranty. We have to give you a replacement. But before the replacement, we have to collect the wrongfully delivered item. It's on the 79th page.”
Mary suddenly started to cry. Stephen tried to calm her down. He called their lawyer on the phone and explained the situation and told him to arrive here urgently.
Once the lawyer arrived at the clinic, he took Stephen aside and said, “Listen, the police and the court cannot help us. I've seen these kinds of cases and maybe we might get a damage settlement, but we can't get the baby that way.”
Mary joined in the conversation and said loudly, “We don't need the money. We need our baby. I'll pay whatever it takes to get that baby back.”
The lawyer was silent for a while. “Okay. You both wait in the visitor's area. I will try to talk with a senior representative for the company. Maybe they know what happened exactly and we can get a settlement outside of any court proceedings. That's our best bet.”
The lawyer went in and talked to Jennifer and asked to meet the person who had originally ordered the baby's characteristics. Because although the baby looked like Mary and Stephen's order, the behavior and attitude had come from another person's order. Jennifer said that she couldn't share the other party's confidential information.
“W
hile designing babies, you're using behavior from your characteristic library, right?” asked the lawyer. “So what is the problem? If both parties are ready to agree, then the problem is solved, right? Otherwise just give us the baby back. It's not a problem. Why are you so adamant about this?”
“No, this baby was built using special characteristic specifications which was provided to us from sample DNA. That's why we cannot give the baby back. It will create problems in the future. This baby must be claimed as the son of the other customer.”
The lawyer thought for a second. “Listen, I understand your point but if the other customer agrees, we can do paperwork to solve the future problem. The root cause of the problem is yours but you're not taking any steps to solve it. At least talk to the other customer on behalf of us.”
“Give me a few minutes. I will talk to them and get back to you,” replied Jennifer.
She left the room and the lawyer called Stephen and Mary in to the room. He told them, “I will definitely get the baby. If she says the customer will not give the baby I can find their contact information and I'll meet them and explain the situation. They can always make another.”
“We need the baby now though. It's time to feed him. I want to see him,” she said as tears filled her eyes. Stephen also looked distraught.
“Have patience. I will get your baby back for you permanently.”
The woman assistant came into the room and told them, “The customer wants to talk to one of you over the phone now.”All of them stood up, but the lawyer told them, “you're too emotional. I will talk to them and bring you back the news.”
After the lawyer had left the room, Mary turned towards Stephen. “I don't think we will get the baby. We need to ask for him temporarily and escape. We can leave the city. We don't need anything other than our son.”
Stephen wiped away a tear that was rolling down his cheek. “Law and order are against us. We cannot run. Our lawyer will get our child back for us. I promise.”
When the lawyer entered the room again he was alone. His face was dull. Upon seeing his face, Mary understood completely.
“They're not ready to give the baby. Let me talk to them. I will explain the pain of a mother. They must be moved by that. They will be parents or are going to be parents right? They will understand.” She started to get up and leave the room.
“Hold on, Mary. Listen. They aren't the parents. The problem isn't even that they're not ready to give up the baby. It's just that once you know the truth, you won't want him.”
“That's not true! Whatever the reason is, it makes no difference! Is it a serious health issue? That's no problem. We have insurance. I need my baby.”
The lawyer motioned to Stephen and asked him to follow him into the hallway and to talk about the fee for the visit to the clinic. Afterwards, Stephen came back into the room and spoke to Mary.
“We don't need this baby,” he told his wife.
“How can you say that? He's our son!” Mary screamed. “Please, I want my baby. I want my baby.”
“The baby we got was ordered by a research lab. Maybe a loving environment could change him but the DNA is based on a bad personality.”
“It doesn't matter! No matter what he'll grow up to be good. We'll raise him right.”
Stephen interrupted her and began to shout. “Stop! Listen to me. I told you a lot of times that custom kids are not required for us we can have our own. You didn't listen and now you are crying. Pretend this was all a dream.”
“How can you say that? It's not a dream. I gave birth to him. He's my son.”
“It's not your dream baby though. You know who they took the personality from? God help us, they took it from Adolf Hitler.
Mary still cried for months afterwards but she never uttered the sentence, “I want that baby” again. In a few months they conceived naturally.
10. Meat Store
This story is based off of a real invention. It was invented for a benevolent purpose but if it falls into the hands of an evil man it might be used for terrible purposes.
Scientists had invented artificial meat which was created entirely in a lab using a very small amount of actual meat tissue. For example, from a small piece of meat they were able to produce more meat. And then from the artificial meat they could continue producing more artificial meat.
NEAR FUTURE
Due to the increased population and higher demand for food products, only rich people have been able to afford grains and vegetables. Fortunately, scientists have created artificial meat for the rest of the people to eat. This invention has saved the world from war and has kept the people eating. If not for this invention, surely there would have been a third world war. The whole world consumes artificial meat now. Even vegetarians who used to be against meat for cruelty reasons have started to eat it. Since no animal is killed, they believe this artificial meat is ethical.
To limit poverty, the government has instituted a price ceiling on meat prices at $5 per pound. It may be mutton, beef, chicken, pork or another type of meat. Five dollars per pound is the highest it can be sold for.
Soft drinks have long been dominated by Coke and Pepsi. The artificial meat market is dominated now by Fleshd and Meatu. Food is no longer a problem since anyone can get a pound of meat for $5.
First, Fleshd introduced ten new varieties of meat including rabbit, camel, horse and others. And then Meatu answered Fleshd by introducing wild animals such as deer, tiger, elephant and more.
Australia banned kangaroo meat and India banned tiger because they were the national animals. Meatu has added even more animals to engage buyers. Fleshd has concentrated on new bird meat as of late. Both brands have more than a hundred varieties of meat so far.
No one eats chicken or beef any longer. Those are boring tastes compared to tiger and emu. The World Health Organization has noted a rise in obesity and has urged both brands to do research on their meat before they market it, but little research has occurred for dieting. As both companies try to add rarer and rarer animals to their product lines, the fatter people become as they rush out to try the new types of meat. And both companies love this because they make extensive profits.
Fleshd just announced that they will soon release some types of dinosaur meat. Research has been completed and it's under testing. They've started accepting pre-orders.
Their television ads have run. “Dinosaur meat: it's a million years old, but it's still hot.”
Meatu's Board Meeting.
“In the last few months we've been simply copying Fleshd's ideas,” began the CEO. “We need to introduce new products. Our revenue was lower than their's last year. I want fresh ideas. Now they are going to add dinosaur meat to their product line. How can we answer them?”
“We will also add dinosaur meat,” said a senior board member.
“Excellent answer,” said the CEO
“Not dinosaurs, but some other ancient animal, perhaps?” said another board member.
“Alright, can you tell me the name of this ancient animal?”
“Let me google it and I will come back to you.”
“Let me ask you. Why are people pre-ordering dinosaur meats? It's because they know what a dinosaur is. If you go and Google some ancient animal that no one has heard of, it will be a mere oddity. Some might try it, but if they have no idea what it is, it's not going to cause a commotion like dinosaur meat has. Another issue is where would you get the meat from this animal? Fleshd got their dinosaur eggs in the Southern part of India and worked a miracle to get the meat from them.”
“What if we introduced flavored meat? Perhaps with different seasonings?”
“Once again, I have to teach the basics. The price of the meat is fixed by the government. We cannot go above $5 per lb. If we add flavors, that will increase our production cost. We want the highest profit margin possible. How can we add good flavor at a cheap price?”
For a long time no one spoke.
“I have an idea. We can in
troduce a new variety of meat.”
“Yes?”
“Human meat.”
“What?!” yelled nearly all of the board members.
“Sure. Why not?” said the young board member who stood up and started to walk around. “Listen, we're not killing anyone . No one's dying like they would be if you were a cannibal. Remember? We simply collect a small amount of tissue from someone perhaps with a needle and we can produce it in the lab. This will be a game changer. I guarantee it.”
Most of the board was against it. They thought it would be a press relations nightmare. No one would buy it. Who would want to eat a person?
“Alright. Do you think anyone would give their tissue to be eaten? I don't think so.”
“Why not? It's not that much different than donating blood for cash. In our case they have to provide a small piece of tissue. It's not hard. But would anyone eat it? It depends on whose meat it is. If it were a sexy model, we could use that as marketing. Sexiness sells, guys. And a model is a lot sexier than a dinosaur.”
“I can't believe I'm considering this. What if it doesn't work?” asked the CEO. “How can we recover?”
“Well we'll announce it on April 1st or what known as April Fool's day. People will think maybe it's a prank and they'll warm up to it once they find out it's real. Then we'll have a pre-order. If we get a really bad vibe about it, we can just say we took the joke too far and of course there's no such thing as artificial human meat.”
Finally they settled on the idea and secretly got to work. Based on a recent survey they had a shortlist of the three sexiest actresses and paid a few million to take tissue and choose one of them anonymously for the new meat product.
They consulted with their legal team and confirmed that there wouldn't be any legal problems. But based on different countries and leaders, they may find that the meat would be banned. But other meats had been banned before which wasn't such a big deal.
Once people realized that the announcement was for real, the pre-orders broke records. They were pre-ordered more than iPhones. Meatu had an expected growth of more than 50% in the next quarter's revenue.
SFS2 - Science Fiction Short Stories: 10 Science Fiction Short Stories Page 6